Effort linked to company’s portrayal of any person or group who opposes captivity as being “radicals”

When it comes to silencing those who cause damage to their bottom line, SeaWorld clearly has no qualms with pulling dirty tricks. At the American Cetacean Society's annual conference last November, SeaWorld defied convention and requested that a panel that included scientists who are staunchly anti-captivity not be recorded.

Now, one of those panelists is speaking out.

Photo by Mike LiuDr Thomas White says SeaWorld’s current financial troubles are self-inflected due to its management’s failure to recognize the growing body of scientific evidence about cetacean intelligence and shifting public opinion about how animals should be treated.

Activists have lost track of two captive killer whales slated to perform at the winter games’ opening ceremony

No one seems to know whereabouts of the two orcas, a female named Narnia and an unnamed juvenile male, that were reportedly going to perform at the upcoming Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia.

News that the two killer whales were scheduled to turn tricks at a dolphinarium in Sochi set off a furor among animal lovers and conservationists across the world last month. An online petition demanding that White Sphere, the Russian company organizing the orca transfer, not display the whales had 453,441 signatures at last count.

More than 250 dolphins captured, including albino calf, at least two dozen slaughtered for meat

The dolphin hunters in Taiji have kicked off the new year with a murderous and greed-driven rampage, their dolphin drive hunt in mid-January being one of the biggest in recent memory.

On January 16, five separate pods of bottlenose dolphins, totaling an estimated 250 individuals and including one baby albino, were brutally driven into the killing cove, made famous by the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove.

photo by Ric O'Barry's Dolphin Project

Over the five harrowing days in captivity, families were torn apart as the fishermen collected a reported 52 “show-quality” dolphins to be shipped to the… more

Musicians continue to cancel gigs at SeaWorld concert series.

SeaWorld has reasons to be sad lately, as the impact of the documentary Blackfish has caused a number of prominent bands to cancel their performances at the marine park, due to concerns of the cruel and inhumane practice of confining captive orcas.

Move indicates a growing understanding that cetaceans are ‘nonhuman persons’

The Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests’ decision to ban dolphin captivity within India has been making waves around the world. The unprecedented decision is particularly significant because it reflects an increasing global understanding that dolphins deserve better protections based on who – rather than what – they are.

The decision, outlined in a circular released by the Central Zoo Authority, states that because dolphins are by nature “highly intelligent and sensitive,” they ought to be seen as “nonhuman persons” and should have “their own specific rights.” It says that it is “morally unacceptable to keep them captive for entertainment purposes.”